Page 65 of The Shadow Friends

“Agent Minnihan, may I have a word?” she asked.

He turned and frowned at her, as if trying to remember where they’d met.

“Jo Thibodeau,” she said.

“Oh, right. Did you ever locate Ingrid Slocum?”

“No, sir. But I’m not here about her.”

“Because I really do need to interview the woman.” He turned to his colleagues and said to them, “This is the local chief of police.” Whose name he hadn’t remembered. Was Jo really that forgettable?

“Can we step outside and talk?” she said. “It’s about Andrei Petrov.”

“What about him?”

“I just spoke with him.”

“Why?”

“He called me. He’s upset, scared. I’d like to know what’s going on.”

Minnihan exchanged irritated looks with the other men and sighed. “All right,” he said. “Let’s step outside.”

They left the ballroom and walked out onto the hotel veranda. On this sparkling autumn day, the resort would normally be filled with guests lounging in the rocking chairs, or cruising around in golf carts on the manicured lawn. But the resort was now a major crime scene, and there were probably more investigators than tourists walking its grounds.

“You shouldn’t be talking to Andrei Petrov,” he said. “This is not your investigation.”

“This is my town.”

“We’d prefer you not get involved at all. It could complicate things. Why are you talking to him?”

“I told you, he’s the one who called me.”

“Why?”

“He thinks you people are railroading him. You and the state police and all those men in the ballroom. Do you seriously think he did it? Does he look like he could kill two people?”

Minnihan stared across the lawn, avoiding her gaze. “It’s a theory.”

“That a twenty-year-old kid did it?”

“Do you need a list of all the twenty-year-olds who’ve committed murder?”

“But this twenty-year-old?”

“Chief Thibodeau, I’m sure you’re a fine police officer, but Purity is a very small town. These deaths have international ramifications. We’re talking national security, espionage. Things you’re not familiar with.”

I know more than you realize. “Maybe I’m just a police officer. But I’m pretty sure that boy didn’t kill anyone.”

“Consider the facts. Andrei Petrov served Maslov in the restaurant. He brought him a bowl of soup and a cup of tea.”

“And did you find traces of polonium in the restaurant? In the kitchen, or on any of the dishes?”

A pause. “No. But those dishes could have been disposed of.”

“So you don’t have anything on this boy. You don’t know where or when Maslov ingested the poison. For all you know, someone could have slipped it in his drink on the plane coming here.”

“Why does this matter so much to you?”